Ohio Supreme Court denies appeal of former Sandusky police chief

SANDUSKY -- The Ohio Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal by Sandusky's former police chief who claimed she was wrongly fired.

Kim Nuesse, Sandusky's first female police chief, was fired in June 2008 by then-city Manager Matt Kline after incidents involving violations of department rules that require honesty and integrity.

Lower courts upheld Nuesse's firing and it will stand because the Ohio Supreme Court will not consider the case, said Cleveland attorney William Lang, who represented the city.

"That means that the discharge has been upheld and she doesn't get her job back," Lang said. "The Supreme Court isn't interested in hearing her arguments."

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After she was fired, Nuesse appealed the decision to the Sandusky Civil Service Commission. That board hired attorney Joseph E. Cirigliano, a former judge in Lorain County Common Pleas Court and the 9th District Court of Appeals, to be the hearing officer.

Cirigliano affirmed the decision to fire Nuesse, but the Civil Service Commission in October 2009 voted to overturn the decision and reinstate Nuesse as police chief without back pay.

The city's attorneys appealed the case to Erie County Common Pleas Court and asked the court to stop Nuesse from resuming as chief while the issue was pending. A visiting judge in August 2010 overturned the Civil Service Commission's decision.

The 6th District Court of Appeals upheld the decision and Nuesse appealed the case for consideration at the Ohio Supreme Court.

Nuesse later ran and won a seat on the Sandusky City Commission. She resigned her seat and now is listed as chief of police for the village of Minerva Park, according to www.minervapark.org.

Kline, a former Mason city councilman, was fired in November 2009 when a developer unveiled a recorded telephone conversation of Kline using insensitive language. He works as municipal manager of West Milton, according to online news reports.